Dish With One Spoon

A trail entrance that honors the Haudenosaunee cultural practice and the Great Dish treaty.

Prior to contact with Europeans, a treaty was made between the Indigenous nations of southern Ontario and upstate New York to share the bounty of the land. The Great Dish treaty upheld that people only take what they need, always leave something in the Dish for others, and keep the Dish clean. Here, at this site called Smokey Hollow, the depression and contours of the land created a natural bowl, or dish, that symbolizes the Dish with One Spoon concept.

From this location, one can see three trail entrances that emerge from the woods. The converging of these entrances represent a cultural practice of greeting visitors to the villages of the Haudenosaunee people. To anchor this meeting point, we created a trail entrance that embraces visitors and encapsulates the legacy of an old cultural practice.